Typical inkjet printers employ one or more print head assemblies, each of which includes an orifice plate having formed in an orifice area therein, hundreds of very small orifices through which ink is sprayed on to a print medium. Because the small diameter orifices are susceptible to clogging, these inkjet printers may use some type of wiping mechanism or system to remove debris and accumulated ink from the orifice area. The wiping mechanism may include means for creating a wicking action. This wiping process often is noisy. Moreover, the multiple print head assemblies may be of different sizes and topographies, so that a wiping mechanism ideally suited for one type of print head assembly is not so well suited for another type of print head assembly. For example, many inkjet printers employ a color-ink print head assembly and a black-ink print head assembly. The black-ink print head assembly typically is larger (wider) than the color-ink print head assembly, and a wiping system optimized for the black-ink print head assembly might not be effective in wiping the orifice area of the color-ink print head assembly. A solution that uses multiple wipers, each sized for the appropriate print head assembly, adds cost and size to the inkjet printer. This solution may be impractical for a small and/or intended low-cost printer.